aaaaturkey wrote:Russians can be quite weird tooThe point is weirdness that somehow laps itself back into awesomeness. If you just want weirdness, I have yet to see anything from pop culture beat Wang Rong Rollin's "Chick Chick" video. But it doesn't lap itself into awesome, it's just frightening.

One of the best things about not being an SJW is the ability to enjoy East Asia's cultural appropriation of heavy metal music. Not just Baby Metal but Mongol Metal groups like Tengar Cavalry and Nine Treasures are some of the most exciting and just plain fun metal in years.

That the Metal Scene is more interested in real diversity and tolerance than SJWs should tell everyone everything they need to know about "Social Justice".

Thanks Vox for bringing BabyMetal to our attention. The Kami band kicks ass, Su-metal has a great voice and they are highly entertaining. I bought both albums and both concert blu-rays plus I've pre-ordered this album.

95%?! Man. I don't know who it was who said it here years ago, but he said it was 90%.

I had to host a Japanese Ambassador and take him around. While in my car, I had him, his Attaché, and an other Japanese Attaché. I played Baby Metal "Give Me Chocolate" for them and the Ambassador laughed. When I said that 90% of the world's weirdness came out of Japan. He laughed and said, "I got three kids. There are some things in Japan that we just don't want to get out. We are not always successful." That man was a trip.

Japan and it's engagement with the music of the west makes an interesting study for cultural appropriation. Witness the cheesy theme music in much of their anime. It tries to sound like western easy listening, but just sounds bland and forgettable.

Baby Metal is an example of a more recent trend of appropriating the musical conventions of the west, but infusing them with their own cultural ethos and style, making them distinctly Japanese in character, and thus far more engaging and memorable.

That's gonna depend on the target audience and the anime you're watching. How many American, or even western cartoons, do you know that have hit selling soundtracks? Cowboy Bebop's "Tank", Macross Plus, Turn A Gundam "Moon", Zone of Enders, RahXephon, and Space Battleship Yamato, to name a few. And when you get into the video games, jeesh! Take a gander at Metal Gear Solid's Calling to the Night, The Best has Yet to Come, Snake Eater, Sins of the Father, or the Okami soundtrack (5 CDs!). Check out Shadow of the Colossus. Heck, or anything by Yokko Kano.

Maybe you have a smaller aperture than I do for Japanese music, but all I see over here are catchy intros and catchy end themes. But then again, I like Japanese stuff.

BABYMETAL (all caps, no space in the name) is an interesting experiment released upon the world where the actual subjects are not those who simply get it and are at peace with it, but rather those who come away with any negative reaction at all. Observing their behavior gives great amusement to those who are peace with it all.

Not bad. I liked the variety of stuff that Yoko Kano wrote for The Seatbelts doing Cowboy Bebop soundtrack work better, but I could see this growing on me. Much more musical than the various types of metal I've heard lately. As for German Metal, I don't have the anger to listen to it presently (Du Hast Mich is only one I recall - a bit of beer and that may make me a bit pugnacious and I am a happy drunk generally)... but times are changing.

"BABYMETAL (all caps, no space in the name) is an interesting experiment released upon the world where the actual subjects are not those who simply get it and are at peace with it, but rather those who come away with any negative reaction at all. Observing their behavior gives great amusement to those who are peace with it all."

I think it's an attempt to capitalise on the lolicon/pedophilia thing Japan has in in much of its popular culture. They even have slang for ages of little girls, for example JS and JK, depending on whether the girl is preteen, early teens and teenage. The enjo kosai phenomenon doesn't help much either. Oh and finally child pornography possession is being banned in Japan their preteen "junior idol" stuff is "OK". How does a child who models this way grow up?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that people who enjoy BABYMETAL are so, just that one can't avoid that being a motivator in a pop industry and environment where pedo titillating stuff is not uncommon.